Course finder
Semester 1
Philosophy of Science 1 (PHIL08005)
Course Website
https://www.ed.ac.uk/ppls/philosophy/current/undergraduate/handbooks
Subject
Philosophy
College
CAHSS
Credits
20
Normal Year Taken
1
Delivery Session Year
2023/2024
Pre-requisites
**Please see Additional Restrictions**
Course Summary
This course introduces students to major topics in philosophy of science, aiming to address the central question: "What makes science special?" No background in either philosophy or science will be assumed.
Course Description
The course is organized around philosophical concepts and debates that arise in the attempt to identify, justify, and explain the distinctive features of scientific practice, including: - the nature of scientific explanation; - laws of nature; - the realism vs. antirealism debate; - the structure and justification of inductive reasoning; - modeling vs. experimentation; - effects of gender and race bias in science; - unity or disunity of scientific disciplines. Along the way, we will also survey key issues that arise in the philosophical study of particular sciences, such as astronomy, physics, biology, economics, and climate science.
Assessment Information
Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%
Additional Restrictions
Unless you are nominated on a Philosophy exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in two 1st/2nd year Philosophy courses each and only one 3rd year Philosophy course, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in additional courses from this subject area will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.
view the timetable and further details for this courseRelated Courses
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Disclaimer
All course information obtained from this visiting student course finder should be regarded as provisional. We cannot guarantee that places will be available for any particular course. For more information, please see the visiting student disclaimer: